Yang Li

AI methods for infectious diseases

Data analysis for complex biological Systems

Prediction of disease progression, vaccine responses, and aging processes in immune cells

Yang Li is Director of the Centre for Individualized Infection Medicine (CiiM) at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, where she heads the Department of Bioinformatics of Individualized Medicine.

Li uses AI to research the molecular mechanisms of diseases, utilizing multi-omics data, i.e., data from complex biological molecules in the body, such as genes, proteins, or metabolites. The bioinformatician aims to better understand and predict disease progression and vaccine responses. 

Using her innovative methods and algorithms, she investigates how genetic predisposition and environmental factors together influence the immune response and contribute to the development of infectious diseases. Her analyses thus support the development of personalized therapies for infectious diseases. She has also conducted pioneering research on immune dysfunctions in COVID-19, long COVID, and HIV. 

Li also developed the first computational model that maps the aging process of immune cells. This AI is freely accessible and enables research into why people become more susceptible to certain diseases with increasing age.

Yang Li received her PhD in bioinformatics from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 2010 and conducted research there as an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics. In 2019, she moved to the HZI and has since also served as Director of CiiM. Li is also a professor of bioinformatics at Hannover Medical School.